Not much to beware for the upcoming ides of March. From the front range of the Rockies to the Pacific coast, generally above average temperatures are expected although near-normal in Oregon and the northern California coastline. For the east, near normal except a little cooler than normal near the lower Great Lakes. This period should bring the end of the extraction season.
This week is a whole different story as the active weather continues. It begins with a big, cold upper trough parked over the NE, an Alberta clipper winter storm moving into the northern Plains, and quite mild, zonal (W-E) flow over California and the SW. The NE trough gradually pulls E and well offshore through the first half of the week, and the clipper tracks to the ESE to lie just on the N Carolina coast near Norfolk by Wednesday evening. As the clipper moves toward the east coast, it will bring snow to the N of its track through the Northern Plains, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and the lower Lakes during the first half of the week.
An upper ridge builds over the west on Tuesday but it is quickly replaced by a cold Pacific low that hits the Cali coast on Wednesday and digs SE to lie over Las Vegas by Saturday. This system will bring quite cold conditions and strong gusty winds to the desert SW during the latter half of the week and possibly a severe front-range snowstorm to Colorado Friday eve-Saturday. Meanwhile the clipper will intensify into a coastal storm and bring rain, strong winds and some inland snow to much of the NE on Wednesday and Thursday although it will move too far out to sea to bring a real blizzard to the region. In between the departing clipper and the Pacific trough a ridge will move from just west of the Rockies during the mid week and gradually track east. By Friday it will lie in a position through the Great Lakes and south to Louisiana, moderating the cold air left in the wake of the Clipper. Extractions to be reported next Thursday for the week ending March 1 should be quite lower than average; around 130 bcf.
